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Expansion!

We work in an environment when you have to care about what you do more than the compensation you are getting. It is just a reality of this business and what we are trying to achieve.

Like any business, good people are hard to find – but because of the nature of this job and what it must mean for the employees for them to truly succeed and feel accomplished; good people are even harder to find. We do not have the time, resources or patience to have a revolving door for employees. Where some places are able to have a high-turnover rate and it just doesn’t matter, for us it would be like shooting ourselves in the foot with a cannon.

I kid you not, back in August 2009 when I was hired, there were two other employees on the team (aside from Ethan). Within a month, just myself and Ethan were left. He had cleaned house and was no longer interested in those who don’t have any drive to learn, and work hard for something bigger than themselves. Don’t get me wrong, Ethan is not a slave driver, he is just a realist with no room for bullshit.

Realism.

Even so, it’s tough to find good people – I have seen 14 people come in and out of these doors since then. For a company that was 2 people in the back-half of 2009 and is currently 5 people in 2012 – That is a pretty awful turnover rate. Especially considering that other than myself, the only person who has been here for 2 years or more is Jeff. Jay just passed his one year mark, and Russell is going to be hitting his one-year around February.

I bring this up, because we are hiring two new people and have decided to move on from actively trying to find them. Honestly, with our pay grade and work style, more often than not we attract younger people. Not to say this is bad, I am 23 and was hired at 19 – but in general someone who is younger works purely for the paycheck and does not have the maturity or drive to do or be more than a 9-5-time-filling-paycheck-collection-employee.

Our most recent Employees were friends first and then became a part of the company because they had been around us, watching what we are working for and wanting to be a part of that. They WANT to be a part of Hustle Paintball and our mission to take the paintball world by storm with our knowledge and helpfulness. Seriously, Jay and Russell were Team Anomaly members first, and then became Hustle Paintball employees. We are so happy to have trusted and taken the plunge into hiring them, because we would not have had the video and creativity surge we have had lately were it not for them.

It is because of Jay & Russell’s success that another Anomaly Team member will become a part of the company, our good friend and brother in arms, Erik Cromer.

Dat look.

Erik has been on the team for a little over a year now but he has been a friend for much longer than that. We are excited to have someone like Erik joining the team. Not only does he care about us as friends, but he cares about the company and our mission. Coming up shortly he will be answering phones and emails just like the rest of us, so look out! Welcome him to the company if you interact with him at all :) .

Now, we do not just hire directly from the team.. even though the last three have been and still are team members. We just changed our outlook and went searching for those who we KNOW that we can trust, that have expressed a care and love for this company and what we are meaning to accomplish. The second employee we are hiring will not be starting until February or March, but those of you who read this blog regularly will know of him.

Jason was originally a customer who just showed up in our showroom one day because he wanted to purchase a paintball marker and some gear. However, he did not know much about the sport and had heard about how we like to educate our customers and allow them to make their own purchasing decisions. (Contrary to experiences he had with other places who prey on lack of knowledge and just shovel expensive products your direction, pressuring you into buying them.)

Jason liked the way we treated him and his familiy so much when he came in here that he decided he wanted to volunteer in his free time, just to help us out.

Jason does not normally look this cool.

Fast forward to today and Jason has become a close friend of ours who we miss when he is not around. So we are extremely excited to be able to have him be a part of our team after the new year.

Thank you for watching our channel. Thank you for buying paintball gear you need at HustlePaintball.com. Thank you for reading these blogs. Thank you for posting on pbRIOT.com! Thank you for being a part of us, trust me, not a single one of us goes to sleep without knowing and feeling that we would not be where we are, where we are headed without all of you.

Its good to hear that its going be be expansion, I am happy for you all, and just wanna check in and tell that this is awesome news! I agree very much on the super knowledge and education people get from you guys either in showroom or by mail/phone. I think that you guys are much more into this than the most of the other shops, so that is very awesome! Maybe I´ll order true the Jason or Erik then
Welcome onboard!

I wish you all good luck, and talk to you soon guys when next order may come!

Wow. Great to see you guys at Hustle are expanding getting more “out there”? Too bad you guys aren’t in California, I would’ve loved to volunteer my time and hopefully get a job there eventually. I’ve been playing paintball and have slowly progressed my knowledge over the past 2-3 years. I can’t stress how awesome you guys are!